Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS)

Price Statistics Section

Litostrojska cesta 54, SI-1000 Ljubljana

The purpose of publishing data on import price indices is to present monthly changes in the prices of imports. 

CPA (Classification of Products by Activity) and CN (Combined Nomenclature) are used.

Import price indices cover three sections of the CPA:

• B - MINING AND QUARRYING,
• C - MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS, and 19.2 and 29.10 for the European Sample scheme,
• D - ELECTRICITY, GAS, STEAM AND AIR CONDITIONING.

Additionally, we publish price indices for special groups of activities (MIGs) showing the dynamics of prices by end-use of products from individual activities at CPA class level.

The purpose of the Import Price Index is to measure monthly rates of change in the prices of products in sections B, C and D (excluding services). Base on the distinction of countries of consigment between two purchase zones (eurozone and non-eurozone countries), the sub-indices are also compiled.

The basic information collected is the import price, calculated as an average of whole reference month.

Reporting unit: Enterprise

Observation unit(s): Product

Enterprises are selected into the sample of enterprises that will be included in the import price indices survey on the basis of the threshold shift method. The import price indices survey covers industrial and trading enterprises. The main criteria for the selection of reporting units are activity and turnover within the SKD 2008 activity class. Selected are as many units as needed to achieve 60–70 % of total import values in the relevant department or. class.

In 2022, the survey covered around 626 reporting units, which reported every month the prices for around 3,158 products. 

Reference area is the whole territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

Data are available from the January 2006.

2015=100

Indices.

The reference period is the month.

This statistical survey is conducted on the basis of European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on 27 November 2019, followed by the Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197, the National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No. 45/95 and 9/01), and the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys (survey: Import price indices IUC/M, CENE-UVOZ/M).

All non-confidential data are available on SURS website. Following a predetermined timetable, selected data are transmitted also to the Eurostat.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20 (4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87,p.164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data.

National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No 45/95 and 9/2001).

In order to protect business interests of reporting units, only aggregated data are published. Therefore, adjusted contents of the tables are in use (confidential data are suppressed) and certain rules are applied to protect data, such as a threshold minimum number of units.

Release dates are availabele in SURS release calendar one year in advance (at the end of the year for the following year).

The release calendar can be found on SURS website http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/releasecal?StDni=-365.

Users are informed of a data release by the release calendar. The release policy determines the dissemination of statistical data to all users at the same time.

Data could be obtained on SURS website http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/releasecal?StDni=-365, via phone, mail, fax and e-mail, by ordering statistical publications and by visiting SURS 'Information Centre' during office hours. 

Import price indices are disseminated monthly.

First data are issued with a notice called ''First Release'' at 10:30 a.m. on SURS website. ''First Release'' is available within 30 days after reference month.

Not applicable.

Data are disseminated on SURS SI-STAT database https://pxweb.stat.si/SiStat/en/Podrocja/Index/134/prices-and-inflation.

Microdata are not disseminated.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat.

A description of the methodology is available on SURS website https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReports (Theme: Prices and Inflation, Sub-theme: Prices on Manufactoring and services).

Quality documentation can be reached on SURS website https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReports (Theme: Prices and Inflation, Sub-theme: Prices on Manufactoring and services).

Quality documentation can be reached on SURS website https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReports (Theme: Prices and Inflation, Sub-theme: Prices on Manufactoring and services).

Import price indices are produced in compliance with methodological requirements and standards and Export and Import Price Index Manual - Theory and Practice. In order to assure an appropriate quality of Import price indices quality checks and validations are made throughout data collection as well as data processing process.

Data are used by different users: Eurostat, ECB, national bank, government departments, trade unions, researchers, students, internal users (national accounts), enterprises/businesses.

The principle users are asked about their needs, wishes, and interests at the regular meetings, i.e. at the statistical advisory commite on price statistics.

The latest satisfaction survey was conducted in 2022. Respondents assessed their general satisfaction with SURS with the average score of 8.3 (on a scale from 1 – disagree completely to 10 – agree completely).

All statistics that are required by current Regulative are available.

The accuracy of Import price indices is considered to be good. An appropriate actions are taken to identify and eliminate potential sources of errors.

Sampling errors are not calculated for Import price indices because the sample is not based on random sampling. In order to ensure good representativeness the enterprises which play an important role on the market are included in the sample.

Unit non-response rate (annual average 2022): 0.6%

SURS reminds the reporting units of their obligation via e-mail. After having received the second reminder, the units that have not yet completed the questionnaire are called. SURS has established a call centre which helps the reporting units in case of lack of understanding of the questionnaire, and a list of frequently asked questions with answers is published online. However, usually there are some eligible units from which we do not succeed to obtain desired data by the deadline for data processing.

Item non-response rate (annual average 2022): 3.04%

Editing rate (annual average 2022): 1.18%

In case of error detection reporting unit is contacted again and incorrect values are manually edited.

Over-coverage rate (annual average 2022): 0.46%

Units that informed us that they no longer import products in the observed activities are taken into account.

Data are published not later than 43 days after the end of the reference period.

All news releases are published according to the announced release calendar.

Survey results are based on the requirements of the STS Regulation, which is in use in all EU Member States. This ensures a good comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates.

Comparable time series are available from the January of 2006 on.

The IMPR survey is not comparable with any statistical survey in Slovenia.

Data are internally coherent. High level aggregations are derived from detailed indices according to well-defined procedures.

The number of working hours spent for the selection of enterprises in the sample, preparing the address book, designing and distribution of questionnaires and notification letters, data capture, data entry and data verification, calculation of the results and their publication, etc. was 3,321.

Total time spent by reporting units was 2,744 hours. Number of reporting units that submitted the data was 626, annual number of questionnaires per unit was 12, time spent to fill in a questionnaire was 22 minutes.

The data are final when first released and are not subject to revisions. If errors are detected, data are corrected immediately and an error report is published on SURS website. Major changes in methodology are announced in advance by placing a notice on SURS website.

The same revision policy is applied to data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.

Not applicable.

The data used to calculate the Import Price Indices of industrial products are obtained by survery of establishments. The frame of the survey is Intrastat register. Enterprises are selected from the Intrastat register and not directly from SBR.

The list of observed units is determined on the basis of threshold coverage (i.e. cut-off sampling). Our source for the sampling framework is external trade data. The main criterion for the inclusion of a unit in the survey is the value of imports of products within the department or class of SKD 2008, which means that we select so many units that they reach approximately 60 percent of the total value of imports in a particular department or class.

In 2022, we revised and expanded the list of products whose prices we monitor and the list of companies that report prices, thus improving the quality of indices. The sample of reporting units includes 626 companies that report prices for 3,158 products per month.

Data are collected monthly.

Import prices are collected monthly with the CENE–UVOZ/M questionnaires. Each questionnaire is prepared for the enterprise individually. The questionnaires include only the representative products selected by enterprises. Each representative product has a nine-digit code from the Nomenclature of Industrial Products, a three-digit customs code, an eight-digit code from the Combined Nomenclature, a short product description and a unit of measurement in which the product is imported. 

At the beginning of the year, new form with instructions are sent by email to selected enterprises. Enterprises fill in the average prices in the questionnaires every month for the transactions during the period from the 1st day till the last day of the previous month. Business entities have to be registared in the e-STAT application to submit a completed questionnaire to SURS. Selected business entities return the questionnaire to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia by the 5th of the current month with prices for the previous month. Most respondents fill in the questionnaires throght e-STAT, while the rest are completed by e-mail.

Data entry and checking of prices is done manually in Blaise program. The data are valiated by means of logical checks. The data are compared with the data of previous month and with corresponding data of previous month. If there are doubts about the reliability of the data, these data are checked one again by contacting the corresponding reporting unit.

Response rate at the end of the collection is almost 100%. Prices of products that are temporarily not imported are carried forward until the product reappears (mostly one month). If a product is permanently unavailable, its price change is imputed using the price change of similar product(s). This is done until December, when a re-sampling is made and products with new qualities which will be produced in large amounts over a longer period of time are selected and introduced into the index.

Laspeyres type of index is used. At stage 1 individual indices for each product (at the lowest level of detail = 6-digit CPA) for each observation unit are compiled from prices for the current and the base month = December of the previous year. At stage 2 the individual product indices are aggregated into higher level indices using weights based on the structure of the value of imported products from the base year 2015. Weights are recalculated on the basis of December of the previous year. At stage 3 the 4-digit level indices are combined using the same source weights. The weighted combination is done for all levels of national CPA and MIGs including a total.

Samples of enterprises and products are updated every year. In December of each year the products that have become no longer representative or are permanently unavailable are replaced with products that have become important (higher share of imports). Also new products are introduced in December of each year on the basis of proposals from the observation units. Correction of prices in case of quality changes is also done during the year. Unadjusted price comparison is often used assuming that there are no important quality differences between old and new products.

The weights are obtained from foreign trade statistics. The weight structures are updated every year.

Data are not WDA nor SA adjusted.

Not applicable.